These are the key players to know before Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh addresses the multiple sexual assault allegations against him.
USA TODAY

Activists walk through the halls of Dirksen Senate Office Building during protests against Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill September 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. - The US Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled for Friday a preliminary vote on the nomination of Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, who is under fire over claims of sexual assault in his youth. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: AFP_19H1NL(Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee's top Democrat, publicized the increase in calls to the hotline on Wednesday. She tweeted that the Senate's handling of Ford's claim "sends a message to survivors about how their allegations will be received if they take the brave step of coming forward."

The National Sexual Assault Hotline has seen a 57 percent uptick in calls since Dr Ford went public. How the Senate handles allegations against Brett Kavanaugh sends a message to survivors about how their allegations will be received if they take the brave step of coming forward.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of both the committee and Republican leadership, has said Ford should be treated "the same way my daughters would be treated in the event they were making an accusation, or my mother, or my wife."

But Cornyn also said Tuesday that the onus is on Ford to prove her allegations, rather than on Kavanaugh to prove his innocence.

"In this case, there's no way the accused can disprove the allegation because he wasn't there," Cornyn said.

Lawyers for Kavanaugh sent five pages from his decades-old calendar to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, notifying them they intended to use the pages to prove Kavanaugh wasn't at a 1982 house party where Ford alleges Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, tried to remove her clothes and put his hand over her mouth.

"When somebody makes a serious allegation," Cornyn said Tuesday, "do they have a responsibility to bring forward evidence, corroborating witnesses, other evidence in so reasonable minds could satisfy themselves that what they're saying is true?"